> stuff. You can't hotplug PCI. (Well, you can, but not if you expect it to > WORK. Or if you don't want to replace burned out pieces of hardware.)

You can hotplug PCI. It's called cardbus. There is also full hotplug PCIin the -ac kernel tree for people with expensive motherboards. The kernelhandles a fair bit of it ok. Hotplugging the video console isnt a goodidea right now, and the disk drivers need work, but for basic stuff likenetwork cards it works out.